


August

by disco_agidyne



Category: Persona 3, Persona 4, Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Fluff, Koromaru is there just because, Multi, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Souji, POV Character: Hamuko, POV First Person, Panromantic Poly Protag Pile, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:22:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25679575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disco_agidyne/pseuds/disco_agidyne
Summary: A one-month record of Hamuko's romantic endeavors.The local dating pool is full of dumbasses, but (hopefully) one of them will be her dumbass.
Relationships: Arisato Hamuko/Seta Souji/Arisato Minato/Kurusu Akira
Comments: 16
Kudos: 36





	1. August 2nd

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written for a multi protag ship collaboration project. It will be updated on the corresponding dates. :D
> 
> This was originally written and intended as a oneshot, so the chapters will be short and sweet. I've actually noticed that chapter 1 comes off as kind of underwhelming now that it's separated from the rest lskdfsldhg please stick with me longer than that.
> 
> Side note: I think this goes without saying, but Hamuko and Minato are not related in this fic.

I met a dumbass today.

“What’s his name?”

I jolted to my feet. I swung around to face the voice behind me. The guy it came from was still crouched on the sidewalk when I turned. He lifted his head.

“Uh…” He began.

Wordlessly, I gave him a once over through wary, squinted eyes.

When the guy stood up, he was quite tall, towering over me. At his full height, his head was squarely set in front of the late afternoon sun in such a way that his silver hair almost seemed to glow.

“Sorry,” he said with a disarming, yet genuine smile. “I just… I saw your dog, and…”

I relaxed my shoulders and let out a small, exasperated sigh. “It’s Koromaru.”

He paused with a slight frown, and then shrugged. “I’m Souji.” He pointed to Koromaru. “And this guy?”

“Koro’s the dog’s name! Duh!”

I think I like him.


	2. August 7th

I found another one.

“Twenty burgers, please,” said the boy ahead of her. His voice was calm, bored even, as he said it, like that was a normal number of burgers to order.

The employee at the register started to tap it in, and then paused, looking up from the screen. “I’m sorry, I thought you said you wanted twenty hamburgers.”

“Yes,” the boy said again, his hands in his pockets as he adjusted his hair with a quick lift of his head. “Twenty burgers, to go.”

“R-right…” The cashier resumed her twenty taps. “Did you want a meal with any of those?”

“Just five.”

The cashier made a quiet, distrustful noise as she added the meals. She likely thought this might be some kind of prank. And to be honest, I, leaning forward to hear the details of the order since I first heard the word ‘twenty’, was sort of hoping it might be.

“Your total is, um, seventy-six hundred yen, sir.”

The boy pulled a 10,000 yen bill from his pocket and tossed it into the tray on the counter. The cashier gave him his change, still looking confused, but clearly relieved that he’d paid for his absurd order.

The boy stepped aside, allowing me to approach the register. As I stepped up, I turned to catch a look at him, only to be stricken to the core by his beautiful face.

He adjusted his bangs again, and looked over. Our eyes met, and softly, he said, “Are you gonna order?”

He caught me staring! I was so embarrassed. I had to impress him somehow to make up for it.

“I’ll have what he’s having,” I said, pointing a thumb in the guy’s direction.

Eyes wide with quiet alarm, the cashier muttered under her breath, “Are you serious?”

…Maybe I’m the dumbass.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is August 11th!


	3. August 11th

Yep. I was right. I really am the dumbass.

The downpour had come out of nowhere. Holding my bag over my head to shield from the rain, I ran after Koromaru as he bounded toward the nearest bus stop shelter. We rushed to get under its roof, squeezing in beside two other people.

“Sorry,” I said, bumping shoulders with the shorter of the two. “I forgot my umbrella.”

The shorter one shrugged. “So did we.”

I lifted my eyes to find that we were sharing the shelter with two very familiar, handsome faces.

The taller one, Souji, if I remembered correctly, frowned slightly. “Have we met before?” He gave a small shake of his head after he said it. “This might sound strange, but I swear I remember your dog. Hamuko, was it?”

“Me or the dog?” I asked with a flirty wink.

Souji laughed. I hadn’t noticed it before, but his smile shined like the sun, brightening the whole space in spite of the gloomy clouds outside and warming my heart underneath my wet, chilled skin.

I twisted up the hem of my shirt and wrung it out.

“He  _ is _ familiar,” the shorter one commented, his gaze on Koro. I scrunched up my face a bit as I tried to remember when he would’ve met Koro. The short one tilted his head and continued, “Did you share those burgers with him?”

“A-ah… um…” I hesitated, lowering my eyes. “Y-yeah. He really likes burgers.” That was a lie. But I wasn’t about to tell Mr. Iron Gut that I’d given up halfway into the eighth hamburger.

Souji’s eyes lit up. “Oh, you’re the girl Minato saw at the food court the other day?”

On their way back up, my eyes came to a screeching halt on the boys’ hands.

Between them.

Linked together.

Fingers intertwined.

Thumb rolling over thumb.

“Yeah, that’s… that’s me,” I said, eyes still locked on their hands as my mood palpably deflated.

The hands fell apart as Minato knelt down. He held out his hand to Koromaru. Koro offered his paw to him, like he was an old friend. “Nice to meet a fellow fast food enthusiast.”

God, just kill me now.


	4. August 16th

I must be an idiot magnet.

…At least they’re cute.

The bus was already pulling away from the stop when I crashed into the guy leaning just on the other side of the corner of the building as I’d tried to swing around it. Catching that early ride home just wasn’t meant to be.

But he’d maintained his balance and caught me before I fell, somehow. One of his arms had wrapped around my shoulders, and the other caught my waist, and somehow he made me look more like a graceful dancer than an impatient klutz. It was a truly magical moment.

Or it would’ve been, had there not been the clatter of a gun against the sidewalk.

Our eyes followed the sound and locked onto the suspicious item.

The guy, eyes obscured by both the shine of his glasses and his overflowing nest of black hair, swallowed. “It’s a model.”

That would’ve been believable, had he not been sweating bullets large enough to load the gun with.

I narrowed my eyes. “Uh-huh.”

“I swear it’s a fake,” he insisted once again. “Check for yourself, if you’d like.”

“Then put me down, Casanova,” I said with a smirk.

He hesitated, and then tilted me upright.

“You were thinking about dropping me, weren’t you?”

“Wouldn’t dare entertain the thought,” he replied, far too smooth to be trusted.

I knelt down in front of the pistol. I picked it up, looking it over and flipping it, examining it from every angle. He was telling the truth, it seemed. “So what are you doing walking around with a model gun, huh?”

The guy adjusted his glasses. “Fighting evil.”

I gave him a squint, but beneath it was a playful grin. “A regular ol’ vigilante, huh?”

He shrugged. “I prefer to think of myself as more…” He paused toying with his bangs. “…picaresque than that.”

“That’s a bold word for some kid strutting around with a model gun.”

The guy flinched back dramatically as though he’d been wounded, and weakly protested, “We’re the same age.” He tugged at his bangs again. “…Probably.”

I stood up, and then I twirled the gun and gripped its barrel, offering him the handle. “Probably,” I agreed, looking him straight in the eye. Maybe it was only my imagination, but I could’ve sworn he was blushing.

“Thanks,” he muttered, accepting the gun back.

I gave him a once over. Honestly, he wasn’t half bad. “Say, what’s your name?”

“Akira,” he said, with the tiniest of smiles breaking through. “And you?”

“Hamuko. By the way, I’ve got one of my own, if you wanna come over sometime for the gun show.” I topped off my offer with a wink and a flex of my arm. This time I knew the red under his glasses wasn’t all in my head.

I think I might have a chance with this one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter will be August 25th! :D


	5. August 25th

Oh, how the tables have turned.

I hadn’t thought there’d be many girls into ditzy guys who carry around fake firearms. But alas, on a bench at the far end of the park, there sat another woman with at Akira’s side, leaning over to kiss his cheek, no less. Tall, slender legs, tantalizing miniskirt, silky silver braids over broad shoulders, a strong jaw, and a strangely familiar—

“Is Souji dating every guy in town?!” I blurted out, the realization erupting from me like a volcano as I began stomping across the grass toward the bench.

Souji perked up at the sound of his name. “Hamuko?”

He’d said my name in an unexpected falsetto that made my hand freeze in the air. I sucked in a deep breath and puffed out my chest. “How could you do this to Minato? You… you…  _ PIG! _ ” My hand cracked hard against Souji’s cheek, echoing across the park.

Akira’s body shot back against the back of the bench, his eyes wide with shock.

“Yeah, Souji,” said an even, unbothered voice behind her. “How could you.”

I froze, my hand still in midair as the site of impact on Souji’s bewildered stricken face started to redden. I turned around, slow and shaky like an old gear hindered by its own rust. There stood Minato, somehow holding six ice cream cones, each wedged between his fingers.

“Don’t keep Akira all to yourself,” Minato said with just a touch more sincerity as he joined the other two on the bench and offered them each a cone.

As the pieces fell together in my mind, my entire upper body faded from sheet white to beet red.

Souji, rubbing his face, took a cone. He stared at it for a short time, and then turned to me with a bright epiphany shining in his eyes. “Oh! You thought I was…” He made a motion with his free hand, pointing between himself and the others.

I dropped into a deep bow and clapped my hands together in front of me. “ _ OhmygodI’msosorry!! _ ”

“Don’t worry about it,” Akira said, holding up a hand. “It’s not a problem at all.”

I peeked up from behind my hands with one eye.

“Yeah,” said Souji. He pushed one of his braids over his shoulder. “Our situation… It’s not very common.”

“What they said,” Minato agreed, more to his ice cream than to any of the people around him. His eyes wandered over to the two extra cones in his hand. Then let out a tiny, tired sigh. “Want one?”

I straightened up. My mouth was slightly agape as I pointed to myself and barely managed to say, “M-me?”

Minato shrugged, lazily, with only one shoulder. “I guess.”

I couldn’t help but pout as I took the cone from him. No need to sound so excited, Bucko.

Akira lounged back against the bench and propped up his left ankle on his right knee, a smug grin upon his face. “I suppose she’s cute enough.”

Souji made a small frown. “But you were gushing over her muscles just last night.”

Akira dropped his grin in an instant. His eyes seemed to disappear beneath the shine of his lenses again, much as they had when we’d first met. His whole face took on a deep cherry hue. He covered his mouth with his fist and cleared his throat. Souji chuckled softly to himself, then gave Akira another peck on the cheek that did nothing to help Akira’s red complexion.

“So he has eyes,” Minato said for Akira, who seemed unable to form his own defense.

Souji crossed his pastel ribbon-wrapped ankles in this dainty way that didn’t match up with my first impression of him at all. “She is pretty cute,” he admitted with a small shrug.

Souji aimed a gleaming, disarming smile at me that definitely made my heart flutter in the most embarrassingly girly way. I tried to turn my gaze away to Akira, but he had this bashful smirk persisting under his lingering blush that wasn’t any less charming. Finally, my eyes settled on Minato, who, bless him, looked about as apathetic as ever. Except for the way he was making direct eye contact. And that tiny hint of warmth from his soft expression that set my chest on fire like it was some poor, unfortunate ant trapped under a magnifying glass.

I hadn’t noticed until then, but I was clutching at my chest like some foolish young maiden in a shoujo manga.

But if I’m the main character, then at least that means I’m adorable as hell.

I puffed up my chest and crossed my arms as I grinned at them with narrowed eyes. “So tell me, boys. Is that an offer?”

My counterattack had worked like a charm. Souji, despite his usual shameless ways, was blushing for once. Akira looked like he might genuinely pass out from all the blood gathered in his head. And Minato, that unreadable jerk, had finally lowered his cone and stopped eating long enough to send and actually display an emotion on his face.

A stunned silence settled between the three of them. Minato looked over the others. Souji rubbed Akira’s back and offered Minato a flustered nod.

Minato turned back to me with a small, resigned shrug. “Put them out of their misery.”

“Don’t act like you don’t like her too,” Akira muttered.

Minato nudged Akira’s elbow, subsequently pushing Akira’s ice cream against his chin. “Oops,” Minato whispered, just before pulling Akira in to lick it off and rendering poor Akira defenseless yet again.

So he was the one pulling the strings around here, huh? It’s about time he had some competition then.

I strolled over, spun around, and made myself comfortable next to Souji. I leaned in close, taking in Souji’s sweet perfume, and reached for Minato’s hand on Akira’s already weak jawline. “Don’t mind if I do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for sticking with me until the end! It's a silly fic, but it was fun to write. :)


End file.
